Hotel Maxim - Florence, Italy     

This hotel has an excellent location. It is right in the middle of it all. The Duomo is at the end of the street and everything else is within a short walking distance. You can pretty much eat at any of the hundreds of restaurants in the area, tour the city, and then stop back to the room to take a break. Very convenient. The staff and owner were very friendly and helpful. The breakfast was okay, but included with the price of the room. As a courtesy to its patrons, they book tours and whatever else you might need help with. Our room was very clean and decorated nice,as well as the bathroom. It accomodated the four of us very comfortably. They have two computers in the lobby as a courtesy for patrons to use. We booked a tour with Cor Magis to Siena and that was amazing and well worth the money. Great place to stay all in all.

This place has a great location if you're looking to walk to Florence's main sights. We priced several other options and decided that the few extra Euros were worth a more central location than constantly having to hoof it in to town or always be waiting for public transit. The room was comfortable, though not exceedingly spacious. It was clean and everything worked properly. We had a back room (i.e., not facing a street) and the only city noise we ever heard were the church bells ringing. The breakfast was nice as long as you're not looking for sausage and eggs.... It was mostly mueslix, coffee, yogurt, croissants, etc. The staff was professional. Though I would only classify one of them as "proactively friendly" they were all hospitable and helpful whenever we approached them with questions. Booking via their own website saved us 5%. Paying in cash saved us another 5%. Very helpful given the weak exchange rate.